East Arizona News

On May 24, Senator Mark Kelly released the following statement after the announcement of eight major water conservation agreements with Arizona water users made possible by the Lower Basin Colorado River Basin System Conservation and Efficiency Program created and funded by Kelly in the Inflation Reduction Act. These eight agreements will together conserve up to 140,000-acre feet of water in Lake Mead in 2023, and up to 393,000 through 2025; they build off of last month’s announced agreement with the Gila Indian River Community.

“This announcement is real progress toward tackling drought in Arizona and protecting the Colorado River we all depend on,” said Senator Kelly. “Because of the funding we secured in the Inflation Reduction Act, Arizona cities and towns were able to negotiate these agreements and conserve more water in Lake Mead. I appreciate the hard work that went into getting this done and am glad to see us taking another step towards the long-term conservation that will be necessary to address the water shortage on the Colorado River.”

Kelly has continued to break through partisan gridlock to protect Arizona’s precious water resources. In 2022, Kelly negotiated and secured $4 billion in funding to combat historic western drought in the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, which included creation of the Lower Colorado River Basin System Conservation and Efficiency Program. As a key negotiator of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Kelly specifically secured more than $8 billion to upgrade western water infrastructure, including $250 million for the Bureau of Reclamation to create or conserve 100,000 acre-feet of water annually for the Lower Colorado River Basin at Lake Mead.

Original source can be found here.